Thoughts on Life, Love, Politics, Hypocrisy and Coming Out in Mid-Life

Tuesday, May 08, 2018

The Ongoing GOP Effort to Take Away Health Care for Millions

America stands alone among developed nations when it comes to not having a national health insurance system. America also stands alone in terms of the high level of claimed religiosity of its citizens, especially those comprising the Republican Party base. Yet, America's healthcare system - if one can even call it a system since it is mostly driven by corporate greed - treats less well of Americans as basically disposable garbage, left to depend on the most expense, least cost effective means of meeting their healthcare needs. The result is millions without coverage and Americans paying many times more than those in any other developed nation. And Republicans want to make the system even worse as the go about sabotaging the remaining aspects of the Affordable Health Care Act - even as they mouth claims of supporting "Christian" values. One has to wonder if they have ever actually read the New Testament teachings on caring for the less fortunate. A column in the New York Times looks at the ongoing sabotage. Here are highlights:

Republicans still hate the idea of helping Americans get health care. So
instead of releasing the kraken, they’ve brought on the termites. Rather than
trying to eliminate Obamacare in one fell swoop, they’re trying to undermine it
with multiple acts of sabotage — while hoping voters won’t realize who’s
responsible for rising premiums and falling coverage.

Which
is why it’s important to place the blame where it belongs.

The
first thing you need to understand is that Obamacare has been a highly
successful program. When the legislation was passed, Republicans insisted it
would fail to cut the number of uninsured and would blow a huge hole in the federal
budget. In fact, it led to major gains in coverage, reducing the uninsured rate
to its lowest level in history, at relatively
low cost.

[I]nsurers
found that the people signing up were sicker, on average, than they expected,
leading to higher premiums. But as of last year, the markets appeared to have stabilized, with insurers
generally profitable.

Nobody
would claim that Obamacare is perfect; many Americans remain uninsured, and too
many of those with coverage face troublingly high out-of-pocket expenses.
Still, health reform delivered most of what its advocates promised and caused
none of the disasters its opponents predicted.

Yet
Republicans still want to destroy it. One reason is that much of the coverage
expansion was paid for with taxes on high incomes, so repeal would be a way to
cut taxes on the wealthy. More broadly, conservatives hate Obamacare precisely
because it works. It shows that government actually can help tens of millions
of Americans lead better, more secure lives, and in so doing it threatens their
low-tax, small-government ideology.

But
outright repeal failed, so now it’s time for sabotage, which is taking place on
two main fronts.

One
of these fronts involves the expansion of Medicaid, which probably accounted
for more than half the gains in coverage under
Obamacare. Now a number of Republican-controlled states are trying to make
Medicaid harder to get, notably by imposing work requirements on recipients.

What
is the point of these work requirements? The ostensible justification —
cracking down on able-bodied Medicaid recipients who should be working but
aren’t — is nonsense: There are very few people meeting that description. The real
goal is simply to make getting health care harder, by imposing onerous
reporting and paperwork requirements and punishing people who lose their jobs
for reasons beyond their control.

The
other front involves trying to reduce the number of people signing up for
private coverage. Last year the Trump administration drastically reduced outreach — the effort to let Americans
know when and how to get health insurance.

The
administration is also promoting various dodges that would in effect let
insurance companies go back to discriminating against people in poor health.
And when Congress passed a huge tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, it
also eliminated the individual mandate, the requirement that people sign up for
insurance even if they’re currently healthy.

Preliminary
evidence suggests that these efforts at sabotage have already partially reversed the coverage gains achieved
under Obama, especially among lower-income Americans. (Curiously, all the
coverage losses seem to have happened among self-identified Republicans.) But
the worst is yet to come.

You
see, G.O.P. sabotage disproportionately discourages young and healthy people
from signing up, which, as one commentator put it, “drives up the cost for
other folks within that market.” Who said that? Tom Price, President Trump’s first secretary of
health and human services.

Sure
enough, insurers are already proposing major premium hikes — and they are specifically
attributing those hikes to G.O.P. actions that are driving healthy Americans
out of the market, leaving a sicker, more expensive pool behind.

So
here’s what’s going to happen: Soon, many Americans will suffer sticker shock
from their insurance policies; federal subsidies will protect most of them, but
by no means everyone. They’ll also hear news about declining insurance
coverage. And Republicans will say, “See, Obamacare is failing.”

But
the problem isn’t with Obamacare, it’s with the politicians who unleashed this
termite infestation — who are doing all they can to take away your health
coverage. And they need to be held accountable.

Yet more evidence of the moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party, especially the evangelical Christians who make up a core constituency. To call them modern day Pharisees is far too kind. Republicans need to be voted out of office in November, 2018.

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Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
In the career/professional realm, I am affiliated with Caplan & Associates PC where I practice in the areas of real estate, estate planning (Wills, Trusts, Advanced Medical Directives, Financial Powers of Attorney, Durable Medical Powers of Attorney); business law and commercial transactions; formation of corporations and limited liability companies and legal services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community, including birth certificate amendment.

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